Manufacturer: Johann Joseph Ziegler (1795-1858).
Dimensions of conical bore: ~20 mm > ~11.5 mm.
Length of useful air column: ~58.5 cm.
The first two teaching positions for instrumental music at the Athens Conservatoire were those of the Violin and the Transverse Flute, which were taught by Federico Bolognini (d. 1893) and Panagiotis Aktypis (d. 1886), respectively. The selection of these two instruments, according to the poet Georgios Drosinis, followed the two pillars of Greek music, the Apollonian and the Dionysian. In the spirit of this romantic idea, three historic flutes were donated to the Conservatoire, which were found kept in an armoured box. Two small documents, a note and a card, highlight the need for further research more than they reveal concrete information, as they correspond to two of the three flutes. However, the conclusions that we can safely draw can be verified by the Historical Archive of the Athens Conservatoire, and allow us to touch upon their history.
The older of the two documents, bearing a barely legible signature (possibly: S. Kyriakidis?), includes a main inscription in ink and a later diagonal note in pencil. The original ink inscription informs us, firstly, that one of the flutes explicitly belongs to the Athens Conservatoire, and secondly, that it was temporarily placed for safekeeping in this particular secure vault on 6 March 1936. The date supports a connection between the contents of the note and the Louis Lot transverse flute.
The first surname mentioned in parentheses in the document is that of "Papageorgiou", clearly referring to Nikolaos Papageorgiou (1883-1936), professor of the School of Flute of the Athens Conservatoire. The second name, with which the parenthesis ends, is "P. Karapanos", revealing to us Pyrrhos Karapanos, a member of the Board of Directors of the Athens Conservatoire since 1881.
The unexpected passing of Papageorgiou in 1936 leads us to conclude that this rough note was drafted to justify the presence of his valuable flute in the vault of the Athens Conservatoire as a, for reasons of decency, temporary deposit. Yet it also informs us about the ownership of the instrument, which appears not to have belonged to the esteemed professor himself, but rather to the Athens Conservatoire, through the benefaction of Pyrrhos Karapanos. Thus, the loan of the instrument ended with it being posthumously returned.
This certainty is confirmed six years later, in 1941 – just as hastily and on the same small slip of paper – by a different, later hand, which writes diagonally in pencil above the original text. With emphasis, the name of Papageorgiou is crossed out. In alignment with the name "P. Karapanos" and just above it is written the word "Donation". Then, turning the paper diagonally, the still-unknown signatory hastily notes the handing over of Papageorgiou’s instrument to his student, Spyridon Mangos. It was February 1941, just sixty days before the German troops invaded Athens. More research is required to determine whether the hand that signed, taking the instrument to protect it from possible destruction, was that of Mangos himself.
This flute / belongs to the Athens / Conservatoire. (Papageorgiou / (P. Karapanos) – and is placed in this vault / temporarily for safekeeping. 6 March 1936 [Signature barely legible, “S. Kyriakidis”?]
and diagonally in pencil, hastily: delivered / to Mr Maggos / on 28 Feb. 1941 [Signature illegible]
The second document is a card from the writer Dionysios (Nysis) Messinezis (1902-1992), with his name and mailing address “Ioannou Messinezis 2”, in Aigio. From this it becomes clear that one of the flutes (perhaps the older Ziegler) belonged to Lykourgos Messinezis (1840-1910), grandson of the member of Filiki Etaireia and revolutionary fighter Leon Messinezis. The flute was given to Menelaos Pallandios as a gift to the Athens Conservatoire by Nysis Messinezis, grandson of Lykourgos.
The handwritten note on the card reads:
To the Director of the Athens Conservatoire / Academician Mr Menelaos Pallandios / I offer this old flute for the / Conservatoire’s Music Archive. It belonged to my grandfather / Lykourgos Messinezis (1840-1910), / grandson of the revolutionary fighter of 1821 / Leon Messinezis. Warm regards, / Nysis
This second document may also refer to the Sax flute. However, based on its estimated date of manufacture (see Sax flute description), it is possible to assume – somewhat more confidently than for the Ziegler – that it could have been acquired at the end of the 19th century.
The three transverse flutes were kept in a secure safe, a fact which demonstrates the intent of both donors and recipients to preserve them as valuable historical artefacts tied to the history of the Athens Conservatoire. Despite the passage of time, they remain in good condition to this day.
Documentation: Historical Archive of the Athens Conservatoire. Detailed Reports of the 25th Anniversary of Nazos, 1915, Historical Archive of the National Bank of Greece.
Made of boxwood, the flute follows the construction characteristics of the renowned Viennese workshop bearing the same name. The inevitable influences of the Meyer system (Heinrich Friedrich Meyer, 1814-1897) do not detract from the keywork design demanded by the Ziegler workshop to ensure ergonomic fingering. Like all transverse flutes from the 18th century up to the dominance of the Böhm system (Theobald Böhm, 1794-1881), it has a conical bore: the diameter at the top of the instrument is larger than at the bottom. It has 8 keys, with C as the lowest note in its range. The wear around the tone holes in the hard wood, following the positioning of the fingers, testifies to the extensive use by its earlier owners. Various features – such as the absence of metal reinforcements around the tone holes, the lack of sliders on the C and C♯ keys, and the ivory ring at the lower end – support the estimation that the instrument was made during the early to middle peak period of the workshop’s activity, that is, before 1852, when Johann Baptist Ziegler (brand: Joh. Ziegler & Sohn), the founder’s son, took over. The decisive criterion for determining the instrument’s age, however, comes from the study of the headjoint. The construction of the headjoint on this particular instrument is of notable interest, not only because it lacks the imperial branding of the workshop, but also due to the sealed second embouchure hole. The presence of a second hole allows the instrument to be adjusted for a different (in this case, lower) or more precise tuning. The arrangement of the woods covering this second hole points to the description of an experimental “adjustable hole”. The concept and design of a “movable hole” mechanism is attributed to Johann Nepomuk Kapeller (1776-1843), principal flautist at the Munich court, inventor, and teacher of the great Theobald Böhm, who would later define the construction technology not only of the transverse flute but of all woodwind instruments through his studies. Kapeller devised an elliptical hole, covering it with a piece of wood or metal, in which the embouchure could be repositioned along with the crown, using a special screw. This mechanism, likely valued for its tonal accuracy and ease of tuning, was especially appreciated by the composer Carl Maria von Weber. This specific headjoint, then, bears exactly those features – an additional perforation on the side and behind the main embouchure hole. A possible loss, malfunction, or abandonment of the mechanism may have led to the permanent sealing of the gap with the two existing wooden patches – one shaped to fit the elliptical perforation, and the other matching the shape of the hole. This construction, therefore, points to the existence of an experimental or situationally useful second embouchure hole. Bibliography:
- Fitzgibbon, H. Macaulay (Henry Macaulay), 1855-1942, The story of the flute, London : Walter Scott Publishing Co. ; New York, C. Scribner's Sons
- Lyndesay g. Langwill, An index of musical wind instrument makers, 1977
- https://weber-gesamtausgabe.de/en/A000263.html#biographies
Manufacturer: Johann Joseph Ziegler (1795-1858).
Dimensions of conical bore: ~20 mm > ~11.5 mm.
Length of useful air column: ~58.5 cm.
The first two teaching positions for instrumental music at the Athens Conservatoire were those of the Violin and the Transverse Flute, which were taught by Federico Bolognini (d. 1893) and Panagiotis Aktypis (d. 1886), respectively. The selection of these two instruments, according to the poet Georgios Drosinis, followed the two pillars of Greek music, the Apollonian and the Dionysian. In the spirit of this romantic idea, three historic flutes were donated to the Conservatoire, which were found kept in an armoured box. Two small documents, a note and a card, highlight the need for further research more than they reveal concrete information, as they correspond to two of the three flutes. However, the conclusions that we can safely draw can be verified by the Historical Archive of the Athens Conservatoire, and allow us to touch upon their history.
The older of the two documents, bearing a barely legible signature (possibly: S. Kyriakidis?), includes a main inscription in ink and a later diagonal note in pencil. The original ink inscription informs us, firstly, that one of the flutes explicitly belongs to the Athens Conservatoire, and secondly, that it was temporarily placed for safekeeping in this particular secure vault on 6 March 1936. The date supports a connection between the contents of the note and the Louis Lot transverse flute.
The first surname mentioned in parentheses in the document is that of "Papageorgiou", clearly referring to Nikolaos Papageorgiou (1883-1936), professor of the School of Flute of the Athens Conservatoire. The second name, with which the parenthesis ends, is "P. Karapanos", revealing to us Pyrrhos Karapanos, a member of the Board of Directors of the Athens Conservatoire since 1881.
The unexpected passing of Papageorgiou in 1936 leads us to conclude that this rough note was drafted to justify the presence of his valuable flute in the vault of the Athens Conservatoire as a, for reasons of decency, temporary deposit. Yet it also informs us about the ownership of the instrument, which appears not to have belonged to the esteemed professor himself, but rather to the Athens Conservatoire, through the benefaction of Pyrrhos Karapanos. Thus, the loan of the instrument ended with it being posthumously returned.
This certainty is confirmed six years later, in 1941 – just as hastily and on the same small slip of paper – by a different, later hand, which writes diagonally in pencil above the original text. With emphasis, the name of Papageorgiou is crossed out. In alignment with the name "P. Karapanos" and just above it is written the word "Donation". Then, turning the paper diagonally, the still-unknown signatory hastily notes the handing over of Papageorgiou’s instrument to his student, Spyridon Mangos. It was February 1941, just sixty days before the German troops invaded Athens. More research is required to determine whether the hand that signed, taking the instrument to protect it from possible destruction, was that of Mangos himself.
This flute / belongs to the Athens / Conservatoire. (Papageorgiou / (P. Karapanos) – and is placed in this vault / temporarily for safekeeping. 6 March 1936 [Signature barely legible, “S. Kyriakidis”?]
and diagonally in pencil, hastily: delivered / to Mr Maggos / on 28 Feb. 1941 [Signature illegible]
The second document is a card from the writer Dionysios (Nysis) Messinezis (1902-1992), with his name and mailing address “Ioannou Messinezis 2”, in Aigio. From this it becomes clear that one of the flutes (perhaps the older Ziegler) belonged to Lykourgos Messinezis (1840-1910), grandson of the member of Filiki Etaireia and revolutionary fighter Leon Messinezis. The flute was given to Menelaos Pallandios as a gift to the Athens Conservatoire by Nysis Messinezis, grandson of Lykourgos.
The handwritten note on the card reads:
To the Director of the Athens Conservatoire / Academician Mr Menelaos Pallandios / I offer this old flute for the / Conservatoire’s Music Archive. It belonged to my grandfather / Lykourgos Messinezis (1840-1910), / grandson of the revolutionary fighter of 1821 / Leon Messinezis. Warm regards, / Nysis
This second document may also refer to the Sax flute. However, based on its estimated date of manufacture (see Sax flute description), it is possible to assume – somewhat more confidently than for the Ziegler – that it could have been acquired at the end of the 19th century.
The three transverse flutes were kept in a secure safe, a fact which demonstrates the intent of both donors and recipients to preserve them as valuable historical artefacts tied to the history of the Athens Conservatoire. Despite the passage of time, they remain in good condition to this day.
Documentation: Historical Archive of the Athens Conservatoire. Detailed Reports of the 25th Anniversary of Nazos, 1915, Historical Archive of the National Bank of Greece.
Made of boxwood, the flute follows the construction characteristics of the renowned Viennese workshop bearing the same name. The inevitable influences of the Meyer system (Heinrich Friedrich Meyer, 1814-1897) do not detract from the keywork design demanded by the Ziegler workshop to ensure ergonomic fingering. Like all transverse flutes from the 18th century up to the dominance of the Böhm system (Theobald Böhm, 1794-1881), it has a conical bore: the diameter at the top of the instrument is larger than at the bottom. It has 8 keys, with C as the lowest note in its range. The wear around the tone holes in the hard wood, following the positioning of the fingers, testifies to the extensive use by its earlier owners. Various features – such as the absence of metal reinforcements around the tone holes, the lack of sliders on the C and C♯ keys, and the ivory ring at the lower end – support the estimation that the instrument was made during the early to middle peak period of the workshop’s activity, that is, before 1852, when Johann Baptist Ziegler (brand: Joh. Ziegler & Sohn), the founder’s son, took over. The decisive criterion for determining the instrument’s age, however, comes from the study of the headjoint. The construction of the headjoint on this particular instrument is of notable interest, not only because it lacks the imperial branding of the workshop, but also due to the sealed second embouchure hole. The presence of a second hole allows the instrument to be adjusted for a different (in this case, lower) or more precise tuning. The arrangement of the woods covering this second hole points to the description of an experimental “adjustable hole”. The concept and design of a “movable hole” mechanism is attributed to Johann Nepomuk Kapeller (1776-1843), principal flautist at the Munich court, inventor, and teacher of the great Theobald Böhm, who would later define the construction technology not only of the transverse flute but of all woodwind instruments through his studies. Kapeller devised an elliptical hole, covering it with a piece of wood or metal, in which the embouchure could be repositioned along with the crown, using a special screw. This mechanism, likely valued for its tonal accuracy and ease of tuning, was especially appreciated by the composer Carl Maria von Weber. This specific headjoint, then, bears exactly those features – an additional perforation on the side and behind the main embouchure hole. A possible loss, malfunction, or abandonment of the mechanism may have led to the permanent sealing of the gap with the two existing wooden patches – one shaped to fit the elliptical perforation, and the other matching the shape of the hole. This construction, therefore, points to the existence of an experimental or situationally useful second embouchure hole. Bibliography:
- Fitzgibbon, H. Macaulay (Henry Macaulay), 1855-1942, The story of the flute, London : Walter Scott Publishing Co. ; New York, C. Scribner's Sons
- Lyndesay g. Langwill, An index of musical wind instrument makers, 1977
- https://weber-gesamtausgabe.de/en/A000263.html#biographies